The
following is the blog post to accompany our April radio show, “Schmidt
Happens,” which was recorded 17 April 2017, and aired Saturday night 22 April 2017
on WBCA-LP 102.9 FM Boston, hosted by Rosemary Schmidt and special guest, Ellen
Iorio.
Audio
Link via SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/rosemary-schmidt-673577789/schmidthappens20170417-aprilshow-bannondharma
Preface:
Writing purely on topics of public concern; never seditious; but strictly out
of the primacy of the concern for the health and very future of our democracy. This blog was first drafted April 9th. This is
another in a series of blogs that have been looking to make sense and explain
the inner workings and motivations driving things behind the scenes at the
White House. This time we look at the President’s Senior Advisor, Mr. Stephen
Bannon.
As
such, given Mr. Bannon’s interest in Dharma, or finding one’s calling or
purpose in life, we opened the show with a few chords from the song, “Our
Purpose Here,” by Ferron. In light of recent events, the radio show took quite
a different turn, and as it turns out, maybe I should have been practicing
“Karma Chameleon” by Boy George and the Culture Club instead!
In my endless efforts to avoid making
the tracking of politics a part-time job, and find other distractions, we
played hooky a couple of weeks ago, and went to see “Beauty and the Beast.”
Once again, there I was in the movie theater, thinking of how alone the big
ugly beast had become in his cold gray castle… and who came to mind, but Donald
Trump. There was a time last fall when most respectable politicians wanted not
too much to do with him. By the time Mr. Trump became the Republican ticket’s
nominee, he had managed to alienate most of the other candidates by mocking
them (Little Marco Rubio, Lyin’ Ted Cruz, Crooked Hillary, etc.). Most of the
establishment Republicans, let’s be honest, thought he had a snowball’s chance
in hell of actually winning the race, and so they had also distanced themselves.
He was just such a, such a… Such a Beast!
And then Trump found his well-read beautiful
Belle, in the form of Mr. Stephen Bannon, who had just enough understanding of
white, middle-American anger to shape his campaign message to win the game. And
maybe “get by with a little help” from some friends (ahem, Russia). Until only
very recently, Mr. Bannon has been commanding extreme levels of influence
within the White House, by all accounts managing the ‘war room’ and laying out
plans to implement each and every one of their campaign promises. It is
worthwhile then to look at what makes Mr. Steve Bannon tick.
A couple of the articles providing the
greatest insight have been the ones by Mr. Ron Radosh and Mr. Christopher
Caldwell.
In Mr. Radosh’s article, Mr. Bannon is
quoted as saying he is a Leninist:
“Lenin,”
he answered, “wanted to destroy the state, and that’s my goal too. I want to
bring everything crashing down, and destroy all of today’s establishment.”
When Mr. Radosh contacted Mr. Bannon
subsequent to their conversation, he claimed he had no recollection of it ever
taking place. Rather curious, how forgetful so many people in the
administration have become.
I’ve drawn a lot of parallels between
politics and team sports, and here is one more. Sometimes you run into a team
that doesn’t actually have any plays of their own to run; their only game plan
is to disrupt and break up the opponent’s plays. It can be very frustrating.
This also brings back to mind the
Genesis Project, from the movie, “The Wrath of Khan,” designed to decimate
everything and then re-populate it with new life.
Politics, both internal and
international relations, survive in a delicate ecosystem, with hundreds of
interdependencies. Jenga. Twister. Chess. From the outside looking in,
stability looks simple and boring. However, in practice it is more like walking
on a balance beam, and actually requires a great deal of grace, poise, balance,
control, and discipline, despite whatever winds may be blowing. Stability and boredom
can take a shocking amount of work!
Mr. Christopher Caldwell’s article
echoes some of the same themes from Mr. Radosh’s article, quoting Mr. Bannon in
a speech in February, where he spoke of “deconstructing the administrative
state.” This tends to make me think the prior conversation really happened as
described by Mr. Radosh. Mr. Caldwell provides a little more context for how
Mr. Bannon came to be involved in politics.
Before entering politics (2016), and
before becoming the Executive Chair of Breitbart News (2012), Mr. Bannon had a
varied career: Navy officer, Goldman Sachs investment banker, Biosphere 2
Director, and Hollywood film producer. His trajectory seems to change after
2001. A number of articles talk of a strong nationalistic reaction to 9/11. Of
course everyone was changed by 9/11. I remember thinking the day after that
things had changed, and would never be the same again. His movies after 2001
take on increasingly more conservative, political themes. Despite his Goldman
Sachs background, based on a talk he gave at the Institute for Human Dignity,
he seemed upset by the big banks, and for the little guy:
“Think
about it,” he said. “Not one criminal charge has been brought to any bank
executive associated with the 2008 crisis.”
Mr. Bannon also had a long-standing
working relationship with Ms. Julia Jones, collaborating on screen plays
together for many years, with plans for a TV series about “seekers after the secret
of the human self.” They reportedly parted ways (2009) when “he developed a
propaganda-type tone” that she found “offensive.” Ms. Jones provides some of
the most insightful observations in Mr. Caldwell’s article, where she is quoted
as saying:
“He
has a respect for duty.”
“The
word he has used a lot is dharma.”
His focus on duty was attributed to
his military career, but he reportedly learned about dharma in the Bhagaved
Gita, an ancient book of Hindu writings. If karma is the fruit of one’s
actions, then dharma might be described as one’s purpose in life. What’s not
clear is whether that purpose is defined by the individual, or by the universe,
a higher power, and which we must divine, intuit, and figure out.
Certainly, at work and in our personal
lives, there is tremendous talk about feeling a sense of purpose and doing
meaningful work, especially when addressing topics such as employee
satisfaction and engagement.
Maybe Dharma is a little bit like the
old Army slogan, “Be all you can be.” This is good, encouraging people to
realize their full potential.
Maybe it’s like knowing what your job
or your role is on a team. To go back to rugby, as the story goes, one night at
rugby practice, right in the middle of running some drills, Coach Kevin O’Brien
stopped everybody, and brought them in to a huddle, and asked them, “What is
your job?” The players were a little perplexed, and tried to come up with the
answer they thought he was looking for – to cover the weak side, to be in
support, to win the ruck or maul…Finally, very frustrated with their answers,
he gave up and told them: “Your job is to know what your job is!”
Back to the Bhagaved Vita - a very
nice overview of it is provided by Mr. Cristian Violatti on his website: http://www.ancient.eu/Bhagavad_Gita/
After reading a little more about the
Bhagaved Vita, it sounds like each of us has a calling in life, and we simply
must follow the path that is meant for us. It’s not quite clear whether this
purpose is defined internally or externally, and so perhaps we are all on a
divine scavenger hunt, searching for clues. That still sounds pretty okay, but
when you read a little more, there is the story of the warrior, Arjuna (whose
dharma was to wage war), who didn’t want to go into war because he thought
about the consequences, and how many people would be hurt in the process, but
then one of the Gods, Krishna, explains to him why the war was necessary. So,
he proceeds into battle, wins, and they live happily ever after. Okay, I have
not read the entire Vita, and this is a gross simplification, but you can
definitely see how such a story could be used to justify or rationalize just
about anything. It’s a slippery slope. The problem is that individuals trying
to divine their purpose here could justify just about anything in the name of
their God, their nation, their beliefs, approaching that thin line where the
end justifies the means. In the history of man, how many wars have been fought
in the name of God or religion?
So, to put the two articles together,
having the President’s closest adviser committed to breaking things down, and
doing so because he sees it as his holy mission, his life’s calling, his
purpose here, is a powerful and potentially dangerous combination.
On the plus side, what we have
observed so far of President Trump is that he is very adaptive. He is not
afraid of taking big broad steps, making big huge mistakes, and changing course
drastically. Most politicians are so very, very careful of changing their
message or making mistakes. They live in constant fear of the double F-word,
flip-flopping. President Trump clearly reserves the right to change his mind
and change his message whenever it moves him. We are not used to this. Given
that I didn’t like a lot of his original messages, maybe I’ll like the new
improved ones better.
The other thing we know about
President Trump, from watching him on The Apprentice, is that he is also not
afraid to fire people. It’s interesting, the timing alone, and could be quite
telling, that he removed Mr. Bannon from the National Security Council Thursday
April 6, 2017, literally the day before Trump ordered the air strike on Assad’s
air base in Syria, in response to the leader’s suspected use of chemical
weapons against civilians.
The past couple of weeks have seen
numerous reports of in-fighting within the White House and the increasing
marginalization of Mr. Bannon. It began Friday, April 7, 2017, when Chief of
Staff Reince Priebus reportedly ordered Mr. Bannon and Mr. Jared Kushner to work
things out.
Maybe it’s time for Mr. Bannon’s
curtain call.
Post-Script
Is it even remotely possible that Mr.
Trump could have a successful presidency? Possible. In the same way that, at
the end of the third quarter, I said it was possible for the Patriots to come
back from their 28-9 deficit to win the Super Bowl. Possible. Not probable, but
still possible because what lay ahead was still in the future and hadn’t
happened yet.
Legions of angels seem to be dancing
on the heads of pins lately.
Was cheating involved?
It’s blasphemous to even ask this
question here in New England, but south and west of Albany, a lot of people
still believe that in the past, somehow, some way, some balls had lost some
air.
But I wasn’t talking about football.
Deciphering the degree to which Mr.
Trump’s campaign colluded with Russia is an imperative to our Democracy. Yes,
they seem to have had a falling out lately. Mr. Putin may not have expected Mr.
Trump to be this unreliable. All those times that Mr. Trump called Ms. Clinton
“Crooked Hillary,” maybe she should have borrowed a line from Pee Wee Herman:
“I know you are, but what am I?”
You know that things have devolved to
new levels when you start quoting Pee Wee Herman to analyze politics.
Meanwhile all of the chaos and
infighting puts us at continued risk. There is danger everywhere we look: North
Korea, ISIS, Syria, Iran, Iraq. This brings to mind a line from “Uncle John’s
Band,” by the Grateful Dead: “When life looks like easy street, there is danger
at your door.”
To quote our President from a recent
article (Colvin, 2017):
Songs
For The Day:
“Our Purpose Here,” by Ferron.
A couple of theme songs for President
Trump:
A little Dharma “Karma Chameleon,” by
Boy George and Culture Club (1983).
“Naïve Melody (This Must Be The
Place),” this lovely version, performed by Shawn Colvin.
In honor of the upcoming March for
Science April 22nd:
“Once In A Lifetime,” by the Talking
Heads (“…under the rocks and stones, there is water underground…”)
More Talking Heads, “Wild, Wild Life”
(“…things fall apart, it’s scientific…”)
And, Jason Mraz again, with “93
Million Miles.”
Mark
your calendars:
·
April
22 – March for Science, 2 to 4 PM, Boston Common. Better get started knitting
your green and/or blue caps! I have to believe the March for the Arts can’t be
far behind, right?
·
April
22 – Beantown plays the D.C. Furies and North Shore RFC in Amesbury, MA.
Propose
an event now:
·
Walk
For Education, United Negro College Fund(UNCF), October 14, 2017
Coming
Next:
I don’t know, things continue to
change so quickly. Maybe not politics for a change.
About
WBCA-LP 102.9 FM Boston & Schmidt Happens:
WBCA is a community radio station
sponsored by the Boston Neighborhood Network, and is on the air from 6 PM to 2
AM each night.
Radio Beantown is on the air! Jumana
Hashim is a current member of Beantown Women’s Rugby Club, while Rosemary, aka
Rosebud, Schmidt has been retired a few years.
Beantown has games vs. the D.C. Furies
and North Shore RFC April 22 in Amesbury, MA.
Go Forward, Support!
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©
2017 Rosemary A. Schmidt
Rose
Schmidt is the author of “Go Forward, Support! The Rugby of Life” (Gainline
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